Miracle-Gro Shake n' Feed v. Super Thrive
I found some of this in my kitchen from years ago and wonder if I
should bother using it on my indoor 6.5' ficus tree, Dracaena, or outdoor creeping figs on the balcony. Ingredients are (copied from bottle): Nitrogen... 10% 10% ammoniacal Nitrogen Available Phosphate... 10% Soluble Potash... 10% Sulfer... 20% I have been mixing a few drops (1/4 teaspoon per gallon) of "Super Thrive" into the water whenever I water them now. Thanks |
Miracle-Gro Shake n' Feed v. Super Thrive
On Mar 16, 2:25 pm, JayDee wrote:
I found some of this in my kitchen from years ago and wonder if I should bother using it on my indoor 6.5' ficus tree, Dracaena, or outdoor creeping figs on the balcony. Ingredients are (copied from bottle): Nitrogen... 10% 10% ammoniacal Nitrogen Available Phosphate... 10% Soluble Potash... 10% Sulfer... 20% I have been mixing a few drops (1/4 teaspoon per gallon) of "Super Thrive" into the water whenever I water them now. Thanks NPK are primary nutrients. Sulfur is a secondary, along with iron, magnesium, and calcium. MG supplies everything, including micronutrients, except magnesium, for some odd reason. Supplement with dolomite at planting time -- mix into the soil with your other ammendments, and let it sit for a week before use. Epsom salts (1 tsp / gallon water) can be used to treat Mg deficiency. Deficiency shows on older leaves as yellow patches between veins rapidly spreading, with brown spots of dead tissue. Nitrogen deficient leaves (older leaves first) simply turn yellow with few or no spots or lesions. As for Superthrive, it's a mix mostly of auxins and B vitamins. I've tried it, and haven't seen it do anything. |
Miracle-Gro Shake n' Feed v. Super Thrive
In article
, wrote: On Mar 16, 2:25 pm, JayDee wrote: I found some of this in my kitchen from years ago and wonder if I should bother using it on my indoor 6.5' ficus tree, Dracaena, or outdoor creeping figs on the balcony. Ingredients are (copied from bottle): Nitrogen... 10% 10% ammoniacal Nitrogen Available Phosphate... 10% Soluble Potash... 10% Sulfer... 20% I have been mixing a few drops (1/4 teaspoon per gallon) of "Super Thrive" into the water whenever I water them now. Thanks NPK are primary nutrients. Sulfur is a secondary, along with iron, magnesium, and calcium. MG supplies everything, including micronutrients, except magnesium, for some odd reason. Supplement with dolomite at planting time -- mix into the soil with your other ammendments, and let it sit for a week before use. Epsom salts (1 tsp / gallon water) can be used to treat Mg deficiency. Deficiency shows on older leaves as yellow patches between veins rapidly spreading, with brown spots of dead tissue. Nitrogen deficient leaves (older leaves first) simply turn yellow with few or no spots or lesions. As for Superthrive, it's a mix mostly of auxins and B vitamins. I've tried it, and haven't seen it do anything. Ay Father Haskell your logic is fine but your premise is skewed, totally skewed. Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web by Lowenfels and Lewis http://www.amazon.com/Teaming-Microb.../dp/0881927775 /ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205731566&sr= 1-1 "In general, perennials, trees, and shrubs prefer fungally dominated soils, while annuals, grasses, and vegetables prefer soils dominated by bacteria. One implication of these findings, for the gardener, has to do with the nitrogen in bacteria and fungi. Remember, this is what the soil food web means to a plant: when these organisms are eaten, some of the nitrogen is retained by the eater, but much of it is released as waste in the form of plant-available ammonium (NH3). Depending on the soil environment, this can either remain as ammonium or be converted into nitrate (NO3,) by special bacteria. When does this conversion occur? When ammonium is released in soils that are dominated by bacteria. This is because such soils generally have an alkaline pH (thanks to bacterial bioslime), which encourages the nitrogen-fixing bacteria to thrive. The acids produced by fungi, as they begin to dominate, lower the pH and greatly reduce the amount of these bacteria. In fungally dominated soils, much of the nitrogen remains in ammonium form. Ah, here is the rub: chemical fertilizers provide plants with nitrogen, but most do so in the form of nitrates (NO3). An understanding of the soil food web makes it clear, however, that plants that prefer fungally dominated soils ultimately won't flourish on a diet of nitrates. Knowing this can make a great deal of difference in the way you manage your gardens and yard. If you can cause either fungi or bacteria to dominate, or provide an equal mix, then plants can get the kind of nitrogen they prefer, without chemicals, and thrive. Negative impacts on the soil food web Chemical fertilizers negatively impact the soil food web by killing off entire portions of it. What gardener hasn't seen what table salt does to a slug? Fertilizers are salts; they suck the water out of the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes in the soil. Since these microbes are at the very foundation of the soil food web nutrient system, you have to keep adding fertilizer once you start using it regularly. The microbiology is missing and not there to do its job, feeding the plants. It makes sense that once the bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and protozoa are gone, other members of the food web disappear as well. Earthworms, for example, lacking food and irritated by the synthetic nitrates in soluble nitrogen fertilizers, move out. Since they are major shredders of organic material, their absence is a great loss. Without the activity and diversity of a healthy food web, you not only impact the nutrient system but all the other things a healthy soil food web brings. Soil structure deteriorates, watering can become problematic,"_ pathogens and pests establish themselves and, worst of all, gardening becomes a lot more work than it needs to be. If the salt-based chemical fertilizers don't kill portions of the soil food web, rototilling will. This gardening rite of spring breaks up fungal hyphae, decimates worms, and rips and crushes arthropods. It destroys soil structure and eventually saps soil of necessary air. Again, this means more work for you in the end. Air pollution, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides, too, kill off important members of the food web community or ³chase" them away. Any chain is only as strong as its weakest link: if there is a gap in the soil food web, the system will break down and stop functioning properly. Healthy soil food webs benefit you and your plants Why should a gardener be knowledgeable about how soils and soil food webs work? Because then you can manage them so they work for you and your plants. By using techniques that employ soil food web science as you garden, you can at least reduce and at best eliminate the need for fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides (and a lot of accompanying work). You can improve degraded soils and return them to usefulness. Soils will retain nutrients in the bodies of soil food web organisms instead of letting them leach out to God knows where. Your plants will be getting nutrients in the form each particular plant wants and needs so they will be less stressed. You will have natural disease prevention, protection, and suppression. Your soils will hold more water. The organisms in the soil food web will do most of the work of maintaining plant health. Billions of living organisms will be continuously at work throughout the year, doing the heavy chores, providing nutrients to plants, building defense systems against pests and diseases, loosening soil and increasing drainage, providing necessary pathways for oxygen and carbon dioxide. You won't have to do these things yourself. Gardening with the soil food web is easy, but you must get the life back in your soils. First, however, you have to know something about the soil in which the soil food web operates; second, you need to know what each of the key members of the food web community does." ------ I direct your attention to the forth paragraph. "Chemical fertilizers negatively impact the soil food web by killing off entire portions of it. What gardener hasn't seen what table salt does to a slug? Fertilizers are salts; they suck the water out of the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes in the soil. Since these microbes are at the very foundation of the soil food web nutrient system, you have to keep adding fertilizer once you start using it regularly. The microbiology is missing and not there to do its job, feeding the plants." If you want to use chemical fertilizers in pots, be careful, but do not use it on the ground. We can leave this world a better place than we found it. -- Billy Impeach Pelosi, Bush & Cheney to the Hague http://angryarab.blogspot.com/ http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/ |
Miracle-Gro Shake n' Feed v. Super Thrive
On Mar 17, 1:33 am, Billy wrote:
Ay Father Haskell your logic is fine but your premise is skewed, totally skewed. Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web by Lowenfels and Lewis http://www.amazon.com/Teaming-Microb...Soil/dp/088192... "In general, perennials, trees, and shrubs prefer fungally dominated soils, while annuals, grasses, and vegetables prefer soils dominated by bacteria. You're preaching to the converted. My (current) favorite plant food is PlantTone, supplemented with vermicompost, for the reasons you cited. |
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